Personnel costs comprised 57 per cent of the value added in
manufacturing in 2017

The total value added of manufacturing
enterprises (TOL C) was EUR 29.6 billion. The value added generated
was EUR 2.6 billion more than in the year before. Wages and
salaries and other personnel expenses amounted to EUR 16.8 billion.
Thus the relation between value added and personnel costs, that is,
real productivity, was 1.7 in 2017. Real productivity in
manufacturing has improved in recent years, but the level of the
whole industry ten years ago has still not been reached. These data
derive from Statistics Finland’s structural business and
financial statement statistics.

Real productivity in manufacturing in 2006 to
2017

Real productivity describes how many EUR in value added is
achieved with EUR one spent on personnel costs.

The number of personnel in manufacturing has declined from 2006
to 2017 by nearly one quarter. This corresponds to good 95,000
staff-years. In the corresponding time, wages and salaries and
other employer contributions paid by enterprises have decreased by
slightly over EUR 0.5 billion. The effect of these employment
measures on the improvement of real productivity has remained quite
modest, when correspondingly, the use of external manufacturing
services has increased by EUR 1.6 billion from 2006.

Financial statement data with new statistical unit in 2017

In addition to financial statement data based on legal units
(Business IDs), data by industry based on the enterprise unit are
now published in the structural business and financial statement
statistics. Data are available for the first time regarding the
statistical year 2017.

The purpose of the enterprise unit is to describe financial
entities instead of administrative structures. One or more
enterprise units can be formed from the legal units (Business ID)
of an enterprise group. For enterprises outside enterprise groups,
the enterprise unit always corresponds to the legal unit. The
enterprise unit corresponds to the smallest group of legal units,
which in its decision-making process forms an independent
production unit. The internal business transactions of the
enterprise unit have been eliminated so the data by industry differ
from the data based on legal units (Business ID). The differences
are also due to the deduction of industry concerning enterprise
units with multiple activities. The changes are most visible in
operating income and expenses.

In the data based on enterprise unit, turnover in the entire
non-financial corporations sector (TOL B to S, excl. K) was EUR 396
billion, which is EUR 12.6 billion less than the combined turnover
for legal units in 2017.

Turnover of enterprises by enterprise unit and
legal unit and industry in 2017

When enterprises’ activities are described by enterprise
unit, the biggest changes are visible in all manufacturing (TOL B
to E) and its sub-industries the forest industry and metal
industry. In recent years, several internal sales companies of
enterprise groups have been established in the forest industry.
Their internal transactions have been eliminated by good EUR 5
billion.

The change to the use of enterprise unit is also visible in the
key figures on the profitability by industry. When income and
expenses are eliminated in equal measure, the percentages of
business profits increase in the operating margin, for example.

Enterprises’ operating margin by
enterprise unit and legal unit and industry in 2017

Enterprise unit,
Operating margin,
per cent

Business ID,
Operating margin,
per cent

Total industry (B-E)

11,3

10,7

Construction (F)

8,5

8,5

Trade (G)

4,0

3,9

Service industries
(H-S excl.K)

14,3

14,2

Number of personnel of enterprises grew in 2017

The number of legal units was 364,500 in total in 2017. Of
these, 364,200 enterprise units were formed. The introduction of
the enterprise unit only has a small effect on the number of
personnel on the total level, but due to the reallocations of
industries, small changes are visible in individual industries. In
the following examination the effect of enterprise units is
disregarded.

The number of personnel of enterprises grew by around 25,000
staff-years in 2017. The combined number of personnel was 1.45
million converted into full-time employees. The number of personnel
rose most in the industries of computer programming, construction
of buildings and employment activities (industries 62, 41 and 78).
The number of personnel decreased most in retail trade and
agriculture (industries 47 and 01).

The number of enterprises grew by around two per cent from the
level of the previous year. The number of enterprises grew most in
forestry and real estate activities (industries 02 and 68). The
share of limited companies of all enterprises grew and their share
surpassed 40 per cent in 2017. The share of own-account workers of
all enterprises was still biggest, around 44 per cent. The shares
of general and limited partnerships continued to decline.

The share of micro enterprises of all enterprises was biggest,
around 92 per cent, but their share continued to decrease. A micro
enterprise is defined as an independent enterprise with fewer than
10 employees.

The number of enterprises belonging to a group was under five
per cent of the total number of enterprises, but the share of
groups in the total number of personnel was over 54 per cent.

The data are based on the Tax Administration's tax data. The
data have been supplemented with Statistics Finland's own
inquiry.